HAYDOCK CATHOLIC BIBLE COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT

PROVERBS 18

CHAPTER XVIII.

Ver. 1. Reproach. True friendship resembles charity, and bears all things. 1 Cor. xiii. 4. Heb. now reads Thave, "desire;" instead of Thuane, occasion, or "pretext," which must have been in the copies of the Sept. and Vulg. C. --- Prot. "through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom." The solitary seeks heaven. H.

Ver. 2. Heart. Conformable to his passions. C. --- Heb. "unless to lay open his heart." He wishes to appear wise, and to justify his wicked designs. H.

Ver. 3. Contemneth both God and man. Lu. xviii. 4. Heb. "is contemned" in his turn. C. --- He is like a man abandoned by the physician. Op. Imp. in Matt. Hom. 40.

Ver. 4. Man, who is just and wise. His advice deserves attention. C. xx. 5.

Ver. 6. Quarrels. Heb. "blows." Sept. "death;" (v. 7.) which are the usual consequences of quarrels.

Ver. 8. Tongued. Heb. "caluminator." He pretends to wish well to those of whom he speaks, or else to guard the company against deceit. C. --- "If the devil be upon the detractor's tongue, he is in the ears of those who pay attention to him." S. Fran. de Sales. --- Fear, &c. is in the Sept. above. The Vulg. retains both this and the new version of S. Jerom.

Ver. 9. Brother. Like him, as both end in poverty. C. x. 4. and xii. 11.

Ver. 10. Name. Essence, or protection of God. The rich depends on his own wealth.

Ver. 13. Heareth the end of the question. C. i. 5.

Ver. 14. Infirmity of the flesh. Matt. xxvi. 41. --- That is. Theodot. "is wounded, who shall support?"

Ver. 16. Princes. He easily finds access by showing submission. C.

Placatur donis Jupiter ipse suis. Ovid.

Ver. 17. Him. To see that he act with sincerity.

Ver. 18. Lot. C. xvi. 33. Sept. "silence." C. --- But Grabe substitutes "lot." H.

Ver. 19. Judgments of many are more deserving of credit. Heb. "a brother offended, is like a strong place, and their quarrels," &c. The are not easily reconciled. Civil wars are most terrible. C.

Ver. 20. Satisfied. Those who are guarded in their words get employment. H. C. xii. 14.

Ver. 21. Love it, and speak well or ill, shall receive accordingly. Matt. xii. 37.

Ver. 22. Good wife. Good is not in Heb. but should be understood, as it is expressed in Sept. of Complut. (C.) and Alex. H. --- He that, &c. occurs not in Heb. Sixtus V. &c. But it is found in Sept. and Arabic. The Syriac omits the last sentence. --- Wicked. S. Aug. had frequently asserted that a divorce was only of counsel: but this he retracted, when he reflected on this text. Ret. i. 19. --- The Hebrews, Athenians, and Romans, followed the same practice with adulteresses. Selden, Ux. iii. 16. Dem. in NeÃ¦ram, &c. --- Hermas (past. i. 4.) prescribes that the penitent shall be received again, but not often. In cae of divorce, the fathers still permit not a second marriage, that the parties may be reconciled. They enjoin the husband to put away only such as are incorrigible. S. Aug. Adul. ii. 3. C.

Ver. 24. Brother. The ties of nature are not so strong as those of friendship. C. --- Heb. "a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Prot. H. --- Ut ameris ama. Mart.